Penang, August 4:

The Nepali cricketers are all set to face Afghanistan in the inaugural match of the ACC Asia Cup Under-17 Cricket Tournament here on Friday. Coach Roy Luke Dias said that he was not in position to comment about the match at the moment. “Ours is not very good batting line, so nothing can be said about the match,” he said. “We even don’t have a good fielding side too,” added the Sri Lankan coach. On top of that, allrounder Sujin Adhikari was injured during a practise session on Thursday. “We were already in a difficult position, and the injury to Adhikari was another blow for us,” Dias said. Adhikari was rushed to the hospital immediately and has seven stitches over the cut near his right thumb. The medium pacer was hurt while trying to stop a Nirmal Simangauda’s shot. Doctors have advised him to stay out of the while tournament.

Now, all the responsibilities are on the shoulders of skipper Gyanendra Malla, Deepen Shrestha, Nirmal Simangauda and Rajan Khadgi. Malla and Shrestha are the only players in the team with some international experience. Both of them were the members of the Under-15 squad that won the Asia Cup in the UAE in April. Skipper Malla admitted that the team’s batting line was weak. “The Afghanis are experienced, while most of our players are rookies. Majority of them have not even played in national tournaments,” he said. Assistant coach Pradeep Raj Pandey informed that Deepen Shrestha and Rajan Khadgi would open the innings.